Episode 1: Ezechi Britton - Opportunity Untapped

Fiftyfaces Focus - The Last Frontier: Diverse Founders and VCs

Ezechi Britton is a Founding Member, Principal and CTO in residence at Impact X Capital, which invests in start-ups across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He previously was the co-founder of Neyber, a financial wellbeing provider where he was also Chief Technology Officer. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Code Untapped, a digital skills accelerator, which runs ideathons, innovation labs, coding workshops and other events to give underrepresented and diverse technologists the opportunity to showcase what they can do.
Our conversation traces Ezechi's own entrepreneurial journey and the opportunities that made it possible. We reflect then on the fact that "distance traveled" to the starting line is far from the same across different groups - in that some have to overcome significant hurdles just to get to the starting line - while this, when successful, can build resilience, it can more often act as a deterrent. Now that he is a venture investor himself we speak about how he backs both the "jockey" and the "horse", but that still there are vast swathes of founders that he cannot back due to capacity constraints. There are a range of different phenomenons affecting this segment - the critical difference in a friends and family round, the absence of a "rich uncle" phenomenon, the lack of social capital, and the lack of "freedom to fail". We move then to discuss the cultural approach to failure, and examine how far the UK approach to it has come over the years to nurture more of a entrepreneurial culture.
Code Untapped is committed to changing the way underrepresented technology talent is found, developed & showcased and is committed to innovation through diversity. More information can be found here: https://codeuntapped.com/
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers, focused on delivering long-term investment excellence for clients and their beneficiaries, as well as Nile Capital Group, a sector-focused, operationally-oriented private equity firm based in the Los Angeles Area.